Animated doll

ABSTRACT

AN ANIMATED DOLL IS DESCRIBED AS INCLUDING A DOLL&#39;&#39;S BODY, A HEAD MOVABLY MOUNTED ON THE BODY FOR SIDE-TOSIDE NODDING MOTION AND LEGS MOUNTED ON THE BODY FOR HAND-ASSISTED WALKING MOTION. THE LEGS ARE OPERATIVELY CONNECTED TO A NECK MECHANISM INCLUDING A COLLAR ELEMENT, WHICH PROVIDES THE NODDING MOTION FOR THE HEAD. THE WALKING MOTION IS TRANSLATED, BY MEANS OF A MAIN SHAFT AND A HORIZONTALLY-DISPOSED PLATE, BOTH ROTATING IN AN OSCILLATORY MANNER ABOUT A VERTICAL AXIS, TO ROTARY ROCKING MOTION OF THE COLLAR ELEMENT IN THE VERTICAL PLANE   ABOUT A HORIZONTAL AXIS TO THEREBY PROVIDE THE NODDING MOTION FOR THE HEAD.

Oct. 12, 1971 R BQRNN 3,611,626

7 ANIMATED DOLL Filed Sept. 12, 1969 3 Sheets-Sheet l tetan- Oct. 12, 1971 R. QRNN 3 ,611,626

ANIMATED DOLL Filed Sept. 12, 1969 5 Sheets-Shoat f3 mvrcrvv'onz. RALPH 50mm ATTORNEYS Oct 12, 1971 BORNN 3,611,612

ANIMATED DOLL Filed Sept. 12, 1969 3 Sheets-Sheet 5 IJN'VI'JIVIUIL RALPH BORNN mmm,

ATTORNEYS United State 3,611,626 ANIMATED DOLL Ralph Bornn, South Farmingdale, N.Y., assignor to Ideal Toy Corporation, Hollis, N.Y. Filed Sept. 12, 1969, Ser. No. 857,346 Int. Cl. A63h 11/00 U.S. Cl. 46-120 4! Claims ABSTRACT OF THE DISCLOSURE An animated doll is described as including a dolls body, a head movably mounted on the body for side-toside nodding motion and legs mounted on the body for hand-assisted walking motion. The legs are operatively connected to a neck mechanism including a collar element, which provides the nodding motion for the head. The walking motion is translated, by means of a main shaft and a horizontally-disposed plate, both rotating in an oscillatory manner about a vertical axis, to rotary rocking motion of the collar element in the vertical plane about a horizontal axis to thereby provide the nodding motion for the head.

FIELD OF THE INVENTION The present invention relates generally to dolls and more particularly to an animated doll which is adapted to simulate the side-to-side nodding motion of the head of a walking infant.

PRIOR ART A wide variety of mechanisms have been suggested and used for imparting animation to the head, body and limbs of a doll. Particularly, mechanisms have been provided for imparting a nodding motion to the head but such mechanisms are usually relatively complicated and have involved, particularly difficult assembly requirements for placing the head on the body of the doll. These diflicult assembly requirements are caused by linkages to the head itself which must be connected during the placing of the head on the doll. The assembly steps therefore require that parts which protrude upward through the neck be connected internally of the head. These connections thus cannot be seen by the person accomplishing the assembly.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION Accordingly, it is a primary object of the present invention to provide a doll for simulating the movement of an infant, which embodies an improved and relatively simple mechanism for attaining animation.

A further object of the present invention is to provide an animated doll employing techniques for assembly of the head to the doll proper which are uncomplicated and reliable, and which do away with the previously conventional blind connections.

A still further object of the present invention is to provide an animated doll of rugged construction to withstand anticipated abuse and yet which is functional for its intended purposes.

These and other objects are accomplished in accordance with one illustrative embodiment of the present invention by an animated doll which comprises a dolls body, a neck mechanism including a collar element mounted in the upper region of the dolls body, legs rotatably mounted on the body for walking motion, and drive means mounted in the body for translating the walking motion of the legs to oscillatory rotary motion in the vertical plane (side-to-side nodding motion) of the collar element. The drive means includes a horizontal plate attached to a main shaft in approximately the middle of the dolls body, with two drive slots in the horizontal plate fillfiti Patented Oct. 12, 197i M n i for receiving pins from the respective legs of the doll. As the doll is pulled along to provide the walking motion, one leg goes rearward of the other and the pins extending from the leg provide an oscillatory rotary motion in the horizontal plane for the horizontal plate which is imparted to the attached main shaft. The main shaft includes a substantially right-angle bend at its uppermost end which extends to the neck mechanism. The neck mechanism includes a neck block having a post extending upwardly therefrom and a collar element rotatably mounted about a horizontal collar shaft perpendicular to the post. The collar element has a lug depending through a block slot in the neck block. The lug includes a lug slot through which the bent end of the main shaft protrudes. As the main shaft rocks back and forth in the horizontal plane a rotary oscillatory motion in the horizontal plane is provided to the bent end, which moves the lug of the collar element from side-to-side in a rotary path in the vertical plane about the collar shaft. This action provides the collar element with a side-to-side nodding motion. Spring biasing means are provided to maintain the collar element near its central position relative to the post when the doll is at rest. The head is attached to the collar element and therefore adopts the motion of the collar element without the necessity of any blind mechanical connections therein during assembly.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS The above brief description as well as further objects, features and advantages of the present invention will be more fully appreciated by reference to the following detailed description of the preferred, but nonetheless illustrative embodiment when taken in conjunction with the accompanying drawings, wherein:

FIG. 1 is a pictorial representation of a doll constructed according to the present invention depicting the side-toside nodding motion of the head;

FIG. 2 is an exploded perspective view of the three major parts of the mechanism for translating the walking motion of the doll to a side-to-side nodding motion for the head of the doll;

FIG. 3 is a front sectional view of the torso and neck of the doll, exposing the rear half of the doll body, the section being taken along line 3-3 of FIG. 1 in the direction of the arrows;

FIG. 4 is a sectional side view representation of the torso and neck of the doll taken along the line 4l-4 of FIG. 3 in the direction of the arrows;

FIG. 5 is a top sectional view, taken along the line 55 of FIG. 3 in the direction of the arrows, of a part of the drive means located in the body, showing its connection to a part of the neck mechanism; and

FIG. 6 is a top view sectional representation, taken along the line 66 of FIG. 3 in the direction of the arrows, of the action of the horizontal plate in the midportion of the body and its connection with a part of the walking mechanism and the main shaft.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF PREFERRED AND ALTERNATIVE EMBODIMENTS Referring to the drawings, and specifically FIGS. 1 and 3, the doll comprises, as is conventional, a body generally designated by the reference numeral 10 to which a head 14, arms 16 and legs 18 are mounted. The arms 16 and legs 18 are secured to the body 10in conventional manner and the head 14 is articulately mounted at the top of the body 10. The body It} may be formed of front and rear parts 12 and 13, respectively, those parts meeting along a conventional longitudinally-disposed parting line 15 to define a hollow body. The parts 12 and 13 when assembled define arm sockets 22 and leg sockets 26 into which grooves 20 on the arms 16 and grooves 24 on the legs 18 are respectively received.

The legs 18 are provided at their uppermost ends with rounded hip portions 28 in which the legs extend transversely to their interior termination at circular grooves 24, the axis of the grooves 24 being co-linear with the axis of turning movement of the legs 18.

The three-part mechanism for providing animation to the doll includes a leg mechanism 30, a neck mechanism 50 and drive means 40 for translating the walking motion of the leg mechanism 30 to the side-to-side nodding motion in the neck mechanism to which the head 14 is attached. These mechanisms can best be described by particular reference to FIG. 2 of the drawings. The leg mechanism 30 includes a cylindrical member 31 (one for each leg), with a connecting spring 32 attached thereto and an internal revolving member 36 with matching grooves 34 for the springs 32. The cylindrical member 31 is coaxial with the axis 35 for turning movement of the legs. Extending from the cylindrical member is a pin 33 for connecting the leg mechanism 30 to the drive means 40. The engagement of pins 33 of the legs 18 in the slots 42 of the horizontal plate 38 does not prevent a child playing with the doll from placing the legs 18 in a sitting position. Such action is enabled by disengagement of a clutch mechanism when one or both of the legs 18 is rotated 90 as shown by reference numeral 18 in FIG. 4. Lifting of the leg to a position designated by 18' will disengage the spring 32 from the slot 34 in the internal revolving member 36 thereby disassociating the cylindrical member 31 from the leg motion. Since the pin 33 and the cylindrical member 31 are not rotated by 90 lifting of the leg, the engagement of the pin 33 with the slot 42 will remain intact, and in this sense, the clutch mechanism is provided.

The drive means 40 includes a main shaft 44 attached to a horizontal plate 38, the plate having drive slots 42 into which the pins 33 protrude on either side of the main shaft 44. The shaft 44 terminates in a substantially right-angle bend 46 at its uppermost end for connection of the drive means 40 to the neck mechanism 50*.

The neck mechanism 50 includes a neck block 52 having an upwardly extending post 54 attached thereto. A collar element 56 is mounted on the neck block 52 for rotative movement about the axis of a generally horizontal frontto-back collar shaft 58. The collar element 56 is urged to a predetermined angular position with respect to collar shaft 58 by biasing springs 60 holding the collar element 56 to the post 54. The springs are generally transverse to the collar shaft 58. The collar element 56 further includes a groove 62, with a flared opening 54 in the groove of receiving the head 14 during assembly. Depending from the collar element 56 is a lug 66 with a lug slot 68 therein, the lug 66 protruding through a block slot 70' in the neck block '52. The bend 46 of the shaft 44 protrudes through the lug slot 68 to connect the drive means 40 to the neck mechanism 50*.

The above mechanism is assembled and arranged such that the walking motion of the legs provides an oscillatory rotary motion to the cylindrical member 31 in a generally vertical plane about axis 35, the motion of each leg 18 being confined by mating of the groove 24 with the socket 26 in the body 10. The motion of cylindrical member 31 is imparted to the pin 33 as a front-to-back motion which causes oscillatory rotation of the plate 38 about an axis co-linear with that of main shaft 44, the motion of the plate 38 being in the generally horizontal plane of the plate 38. The rotary motion of the plate 38 and the shaft 44 in the horizontal plane imparted by the front-to-back vertical rotary motion of the pin 33 is illustrated in FIG. 6. As one of the pins 33 moves in a direction denoted by arrow 72, it bears against the slot 42 through which it protrudes to impart a motion denoted by arrow 74 to the plate 38. Since the plate 38 is attached to the shaft 44, the shaft rotates about its axis and its right-angle bend 46, protruding through lug slot 68 of the lug 66, provides to said lug an oscillatory tilting motion in a vertical plane about collar shaft 58 as an axis, which motion is imparted to the collar element 56. The action provided by the interlock between the bend 46 at the uppermost extension of shaft 44 and lug 66 is illustrated in FIG. 5 where it is shown that a motion designated by the arrow 76 for the right-angle bend 46 in the shaft will produce a motion denoted by the arrow 78 for the lug 66.

Ease of assembly is exemplified by the following description of a typical assembly operation for a doll constructed according to the present invention with reference to FIGS. 3 and 4: assuming the body is molded from a yieldable, semi-rigid or rigid material in two parts 12 and 13, joined along the seam 15 of the doll, the back body member 13 of the doll body 10 is used for the initial assembly steps. The shaft 44, with horizontal plate 38 attached, is placed into engagement with the bifurcation 80 of the supporting arm 82 with the plate 38 disposed below the arm 82. The upper end of the main shaft 44 is placed in bifurcation 84 of the supporting arm 86 near the upper part of the body member 13. The plate 38 is thereby provided with unobstructed freedom of rotary movement in the plane, as shown clearly in FIG. 4. The legs 18 are then joined to the body by mating of the grooves 24 with sockets 26 in the lower part of the back body member 13, while the pin 33 for each leg is simultaneously interlocked with a drive slot 42 in the horizontal plate 38. The collar element 56 is assembled with the neck block 52 by means of the collar shaft 58 and the biasing springs 60 to complete the neck mechanism. The neck mechanism 50 is then placed with the neck block 52 located and held in the receiving slot 88 on the back body member 13. The right-angle bend 46 of the main shaft 44 is inserted to lug slot 68 of the lug 66 depending from the collar element 56 through block slot 70. Arms 16 are then mounted by inserting the sockets 22 of the rear body member to grooves 20. It should be understood that the collar element 56 is now protruding from the neck opening of the rear body member 13. The head 14 may now be fitted to the collar element 56 by turning the socket 102 of the head into the groove 62 of the collar element through the flared opening 64. In this way any blind connection of the mechanism directly to the head, typical in the prior art, is avoided and the head 14 becomes an aesthetic rather than a mechanical addition to the doll. The front body member 12 is then fitted to the rear body member with bifurcations in the supporting arms 90, 92, 94, 96, 98, placed in holding relationship with the main shaft 44 to enable unobstructed rotation of the shaft. The two halves of the body 12 and 13 may then be joined by an adhesive, fusing of the body material or the like.

In order to facilitate a more thorough understanding of the present invention reference will now be made to the drawings for a description of the action of the assembled doll. A typical movement of the action of the doll would begin with the child grasping the arms 16 and drawing the doll towards her. With the legs 18 in standing position, the Walking of the doll by the child would cause one leg 18 (for instance, the dolls right leg) to move rearwardly. The rearward motion of the leg 18 causes pin 33 associated with that leg to move forwardly,

thereby moving the dolls right drive slot 42 also forwardly. Rotation of the plate in direction 74 (see FIG. 6) would then occur causing the drive slot 42 on the dolls left side of the main shaft 44 to move rearwardly, bearing against the pin 33 protruding therethrough, which also moves rearwardly, This rearward motion of pin 33 provides forward motion of the dolls left leg. The rotation of the plate 38 in direction 74 imparts similar rotation to the main shaft 44 (in a counterclockwise direction when viewed from the top of the doll). The rightangle bend 46 of the main shaft 44 is caused, by the counterclockwise rotation of the main shaft, to move in a horizontal plane in a counterclockwise direction when viewed from the top of the doll. The right-angle bend 416 is thereby moved against the side of the lug slot 68 to impart to the lug 66 a counterclockwise rotation about the collar shaft in a vertical plane, thus providing a tilting motion to the collar element 56 and the nodding motion of the head 14 to the dolls right. If the child pulls the doll further towards her, the action of the mechanism is reversed and the head tilts in the other direction. When both legs are placed again in a standing position (legs even with each other), the biasing springs 66 urge the collar element (and therefore the head) to a centered position relative to the post 54.

It is to be emphasized that the positions shown and described are mainly illustrative of the many and varied positions which can be obtained for an animated doll constructed in accordance with the present invention. Basically, the doll is of a relatively simple and rugged construction and is capable of withstanding abuse for long periods of use yet remaining in operational condition. It will be appreciated that the head and extremities of the doll are sculptured to simulate a young infant, which coupled with the general feel of the body and the animation imparted to the doll, will give the doll excep tionally lifelike properties.

What is claimed is:

l. An animated doll comprising a doll body, legs rotatably connected to said doll body for walking motion, a neck mechanism including a collar element having a depending lug movably mounted near the top of said doll body for side-to-side rotary nodding motion about a generally horizontal front-to-back axis, a head mounted on said collar element and drive means within said doll body for translating said walking motion to provide, by operative connection of said lug to said legs by said drive means, said side-to-side nodding motion.

2. The invention according to claim 1 wherein said neck mechanism further includes: a neck block, an upwardly extending vertical post protruding from said neck block, means mounting said collar element to said post for rotative movement about a generally horizontal frontto-back axis, and biasing means urging said collar element to a predetermined angular position with respect to its axis.

3. The invention according to claim ll wherein said drive means includes a horizontally-disposed plate and a main shaft approximately perpendicular to said plate, said shaft being attached to said plate, said plate being rotatable in a horizontal plane with said shaft about the axis of said shaft and defining drive slots on either side of said shaft.

4. The invention according to claim 3 wherein said main shaft comprises a right angle bend proximate to its uppermost extension, said right angle bend being operatively connected to said lug.

References Cited UNITED STATES PATENTS 2,689,431 9/1954 Beebe 46-119 LOUIS G. MANCENE, Primary Examiner I. Q. LEVER, In, Assistant Examiner 

